Steven Universe: Fractured Gems
by Haseo The Terror of Death
Summary: Steven has protected Beach City for over a year now. Protected it from the corrupted gems and Homeworld. But this next threat is something he nor the Crystal Gems could have seen coming. It'll test the very core of what makes Steven a hero and his friendships with the Gems. If he can't weather the storm, it could fracture them all...


Steven Universe: Fractured Gems

PROLOGUE

The man walked along the beach, his crude fishing pole hoisted on his shoulder. The sun was beginning to set and he hadn't managed to catch a single fish for his family. Day in and day out the past few months he came home empty handed. To him it wasn't clear if the fish were conspiring against him or the gods were just mocking him, but if he didn't do something soon his family would starve. His stomach groaned in agreement.

"I can hear you, stomach," he growled softly. "Do you think I want to go hungry? But what can I do? The land has been unusually dry this season and even the fish refuse to bite. If this a test from the gods, then I am not amused."

 _Great_ , he thought with a chuckle, _now I am talking to myself_. That is the first clear sign of a man gone mad. Or at least a man who spent hours alone fishing for food.

His stomach groaned again.

"I hope the other men have had better luck than me," he said to himself.

Soon he was walking down the stretch of dirt road that led to his village which was nestled the middle of the area's largest forest. He had made the trip well over a hundred times, enough to give him many blisters on his bare feet, but he never tired of nature's beauty. As often as his wife would chide him for questioning the gods, he never once questioned the beauty of the world created for humans. Life could be hard, but it was easier to manage when you stopped to look at the world around you. Few of the men in his village did this and he was fairly mocked for it; he did not mind.

The man's eyes caught movement to his left and as he turned, managed to glance a small deer and its mother watching him. The little one had light brown fur with barely visible white speckles adorning its back. The man could see both the curiosity and the fear in the animal's eyes.

This is probably the first interaction it's had with humans, he reckoned. It couldn't be more than a few weeks old. Before he could reach out to pet the questioning deer, the two of them took off in a panic.

"Well," he said. "I wonder what that was about?"

He didn't have long to ponder that when the ground beneath his feet began to violently shake and convulse. So great was the tremor that he was swiftly thrown to the ground. He landed on his back, his eyes pointed to the darkening skies just in time to see what looked like stars… _falling_ from the heavens.

"Gods above!" he exclaimed, a shakiness to his voice that he hadn't heard since he was a boy and his father had been gutted by a wild animal. He tucked the memory away, for he had more pressing matters to attend to. After picking himself up and dusting himself off, he realized that the 'stars' were falling towards the beach itself.

Taking off at a breakneck pace, he sprinted back the way he'd come, hoping to investigate this heavenly event. When his feet hit the warm sand of the beach he came to a stop. His eyes opened in wonder as he took in the stretch of beach that his village frequented and saw a multitude of strangely shaped objects buried in the sand.

The 'stars' were not stars, but what looked like colorful crystals. He counted at least a dozen or more, each of them larger than the biggest man from his village. After what seemed an eternity, he blinked and cautiously approached the closest object to him. An intense feeling came over him the closer he got to the strange crystal. Almost like it was trying to relay something to him, but couldn't formulate the words needed to penetrate the barrier between them.

Finally he was close enough to touch it. He slowly moved his hand and placed it on the surface of the crystal. "It's…cool, like ice," he muttered beneath his breath.

He moved his hand along the crystal, feeling its every edge. The color reminded him of some gems his wife had made into jewelry for the other women of his tribe. They were a bright yellow, he remembered. Yellow like the sun. Perhaps the color signified something of great importance, a gift from the gods to show humans they had not been forsaken?

Suddenly the crystal shifted beneath his hand. He withdrew it sharply and took a few steps back as he watched in amazement. The edges that made up the object retracted, whirled, and folded in on themselves as a new shape took form. The crystal was changing before him! Its shape no longer that of a giant rock, but of something resembling a human. Except it was very much not human; its yellow skin easily gave it away.

The creature took a breath and glanced around, its gaze eventually falling on the man who stood there dumbstruck. It looked at him for an incredibly long time before speaking. "Is this planet your home?"

His mind raced to respond, but all he could do was nod. He had never seen or encountered anything quite like this in all the years he had lived. Nor had the villagers at home. Was this…a god?

He watched as the creature looked him up and down, then turning around it said something in a foreign tongue that sounded inhuman to his ears. It must have been a sort of command, because the rest of the crystals on the beach began to awake, shifting and stretching into a similar appearance to the first.

Some were yellow, like the creature he had spoken to, while others were blue, red, green, and even orange. The man could not help but smile with each new crystal creature awakening. This surely was a sign from the gods above to answer his prayers. Were they here to restore the land? Make the fish appear? He decided to speak for the first time since he arrived back on the beach.

"Are you our gods?" he asked excitedly. "Here to bring us riches and incredible bounties?"

The yellow crystal turned around and regarded the man with cold, unfeeling eyes. Then it laughed. The man frowned and something deep inside him told him that he did not like the way its laugh sounded. It was not a laugh of mirth, but something more evil than even his deepest nightmares.

"I suppose we are like gods to you, are we not?" The crystal creature took a step forward and leaned down. "No, human. We are not gods, we are your conquerors."

Without even blinking the crystal being swung its massive arms and knocked the man across the beach, landing a hundred yards from where he had stood. His head slammed hard into a tree on the edge of the beach and in an instance he could smell blood.

He groaned and attempted to stand, but he could not. Something was wrong, he had definitely heard something crack when the being had make contact with him. He looked up and noticed the creature and the rest of them had begun marching into the forest…towards the village! This was all he could make out before he passed out from pain.

* * *

When he awoke hours later, for a moment he panicked thinking he'd gone blind when he couldn't make out anything in front of him. Slowly his eyes adjusted and he realized he was still on the beach.

"Night has fallen," he whispered to himself. "What…was I doing here?"

Flashes of a crystal-like being raced in his mind. He'd come back to the beach when he thought he had seen stars descending from the sky, but it hadn't been the stars but…monsters. Monsters from above who claimed to seek dominance over him and others.

"The village!" he exclaimed, remembering the last thing before he'd blacked out. "I have to get back to the village."

He raced as quickly as he could with broken ribs and blood leaking from the wound on his head. If he could just move fast enough he could maybe make it in time to help defend his village from these monsters and save his wife and child. Visions of his beautiful wife, Alana, and his son, Nok materialized in his mind. The man had promised to teach his son to fish tomorrow.

"I'll keep that promise, Nok, I swear it!" he yelled. "Just hold on another minute!"

He heard the screams and smelled the smoke before he had reached the village. Before him stood what was once his home, now mostly burned to the ground. Blood and death surrounded him, it invaded his ears, eyes, and nostrils. Whatever these monsters were they had not left anything standing…or anyone.

Stumbling around in the dark with only the still blazing flames to guide him, he made his way to his home at the very edge of the village. It was difficult to navigate the destroyed huts and corpses, but finally he came to his home.

What was left of it.

The hut where he lived was smashed to pieces. The mud, clay, and straw that made up its structure were reduced to pieces all around the area. His heart sank even further when his eyes drifted to a shape laying in the midst of the destruction.

"Alana! Nok!" he bellowed. He ran and tripped over to his wife and son, only to see that he was too late. In a daze he shook them, screaming for them to wake up. But they did not.

He screamed until his lungs hurt and he could scream no more. With a scratchy cry, he lifted his face to the sky and roared. "Gods! Why have you abandoned us? Why did this happen?"

There was no answer.

He moaned and curled up next to his family. The man lay there unmoving for hours until he drifted off to sleep. When next he woke a figure was standing over him, watching him intently.

"Just finish me," he said. "I have nothing to live for."

The figure laughed, but not the same way the other being had done. No, this…this was gentler. It surprised him and he looked closer at the creature. It was different from the others. It was still much taller than a man, but far skinnier than the ones on the beach. The others must be soldiers, he thought. This one may be their leader. It was also a different color…pink.

"I'm not here to kill you, human," it replied. "I want to help. I don't agree with what the other Gems are doing to this planet. They want to harvest your resources but it comes with a great price: the death of your fellow humans and all organic life."

"I-I don't understand," the man replied.

"That's okay," the creature said softly. "I'll explain it in due time. First, let me heal your wounds."

Placing her hands on the man, a bright light washed over him. It felt…warm and loving. In a few seconds, he reached down and touched his abdomen. The ribs were no longer broken!

"You truly are a god," he said in amazement. "I will follow you anywhere."

As two other creatures stepped out of the shadows, the pink one smiled. "Good, because we'll need all the help if this rebellion is to have any success."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this story. I hope you're excited for what I have in store. Just to get this out in the open, I don't actually like _Steven Universe_. Actually I've barely seen it. Episode 1 continually put me to sleep, I can't finish it. I've done a tad bit of research into the series, but only enough to help me write this story. _Fractured Gems_ is MY take on the _SU_ story. It's gonna be...different, just so you know. **

**Alright, peace.**


End file.
